


Comfort Words

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Prism (Pride-Themed Oneshots) [9]
Category: Caduceus | Trauma Center Series
Genre: Asexual Character, Coming Out, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, LGBTQ Themes, Personal Canon, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:20:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24653737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Angie needs to tell Derek something and is, well, very afraid of having to do so.
Relationships: Derek Stiles/Angela "Angie" Thompson
Series: Prism (Pride-Themed Oneshots) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769908
Kudos: 3





	Comfort Words

**Author's Note:**

> Yesterday's prompt was "Triumph", so I wrote this little drabble on that. Winning over your insecurities is one of the best feelings.  
> I'm annoyed that it's such on the shorter side of things, but well... my inspiration hasn't been kind to me, lately. I've barely found ways to focus. It sucks, because I need to explore my ace Angie headcanon more. I'll probably go back to this idea at a later day anyway.  
> In the meantime, god does it feel good to write about these two again, I love my dense surgeon & tsundere nurse duo.

Calm down, Angie, it’ll all be okay. The situation may be stressful, but she’s been through worse, and, as Leslie has told her countless times already, he’s probably going to be all cool and dandy with it. And, honestly, if he isn’t, then who is?

God, that’s _such_ a depressing thought to have…

Still, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t prepared the serious conversation. She did invite her almost-boyfriend on an almost-date, cleaned her entire flat, prepared dinner in advance so she wouldn’t accidentally burn her whole kitchen down at the worst moment, put on her favourite perfume (a flowery fragrance, a gift from Mother); there’s very little reason to think the setting is what could cause disturbance in her hazardous plan.

Derek looks quite the opposite of her: he’s his good ol’ self, messy hair that he probably tried combing (in vain), wearing a slightly wrinkled dress shirt, comfy-looking jeans and his favourite sneakers, the dark mint ones. Clearly, she didn’t take into account that, to this man, this was just going to business as usual, except it wouldn’t be about business. Hopefully, that is.

Their day off goes as smoothly as it usually does: they discuss some things here and there, mostly related to work, sometimes related to people they know. Angie gets to gossip to him about the things she’s heard when eavesdropping (a tendency of hers she needs to work on) while sheltered by her own four walls when she’d usually have to pay attention to any possible listener: Leslie and Victor teasing Tyler, him teasing them back, Stephen planning on replacing the aging pictures of his children on his desk, Dr Hoffman learning babysitting tricks from Leslie.

It’s all fine and dandy up until they eat and decide to go outside to take a nice walk. It’s still early spring, so it’s a little chilly and the wind doesn’t make it better. It’s just sunny enough for her not to be too scared that rain is going to ruin their day and, as a result, the few plans she has. Until now, it’s been so good, it’s gone so well, and yet… She’s getting a bad feeling about this…

Eventually, she makes them stop in her favourite spot in the nearby park: a pond where, usually, nobody is hanging around. It’s in a bit of a remote spot, and they weren’t really dressed for the occasion, so they had to untie their hands from time to time; but she’s always found it worth the trip and, judging by the sparkle in her boyfriend’s eyes as he takes in the scenery. Their hands rekindle.

“It’s my secret place,” she tells him now that she’s regained her breath. “What do you think about it?”

“It’s… it’s beautiful”, he replies once his comes back.

“I knew you’d like it.”

She tries to sound confident, but something isn’t right, and Derek seems to have noticed: his eyebrows are slightly frowning.

“What’s wrong?” He asks. He’s been less and less dense the longer they’ve been together. She’ll probably never fully admit to it, but she’s prouder than she seems of him for that.

“I… I brought you here because I need to tell you something,” she says as bluntly as possible. Her grip in his hand strengthens.

“Oh, sure thing. Go for it.”

Angie takes her deepest breath, squeezes her eyes shut, and, almost unable to look at him in the eyes, lets go of the secret on her chest.

“I… I’m asexual.”

Derek looks a little confused, as she expected coming from someone who hasn’t really been looking at anything that isn’t his patients and his colleagues for a while.

“You don’t know what that means, do you?” She decides to ask and make sure.

“A-ah, no, I know what that means, at least I _think_ so… I just… don’t really know what to say,” he chuckles as he rubs the back of his head with his other hand.

“It’s… It’s okay with you, at least? I’m… not being a burden or anything for that?”

He blinks at her words, stunned, only to shake his head and smile again.

“It doesn’t change anything to the fact I love you, Angie. I’m not exactly conventional in that department either.” He chuckles again, this time less in embarrassment and more of amusement. “I’m not sure of what this will entail exactly, but we’ll take it in stride, then!”

She exhales, hands moister than ever.

“I… I shouldn’t have expected anything less,” is all she can reply.

As they bring each other to a nearby bench, all Angie can feel is relief and, most of all, triumph. Triumph over society, triumph over a catastrophe scenario and, most of all, triumph over her own insecurities.


End file.
